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After a fun, but hardly convincing, friendly win over Seattle Sounders on Wednesday, Chelsea have dragged themselves across the North American continent to New York, where they take on newly-rich Paris Saint-Germain at the New Yankee Stadium, of all places.
Date/Time: Sunday, 22 July, 19:00 EDT; [Monday, 23 July, 00:00 BST, 04:30 IST, 09:00 AEST]
Venue: Yankee Stadium, New York, United States.
TV: Chelsea TV (UK), Fox Soccer Channel (USA).
Watch online: Chelsea TV, foxsoccer.tv
Background: PSG, managed by former Chelsea manager and eyebrow-magician Carlo Ancelotti, have gone off the FFP cliff in recent weeks, signing Argentinian winger Eziquiel Lavezzi, Brazilian defender Thiago Silva, and Swedish striker and Graham-attractant Zlatan Ibrahimovic for a remarkable €93m.
PSG Team News: Luckily for Chelsea, Thiago Silva is a part of the Brazilian Olympics squad who beat the rather-feeble Team GB on Friday, and Zlatan isn't with the team yet. Even without their new stars, PSG are significantly more of a challenge than our last opponents.
Chelsea Team News: Despite it being preseason, Chelsea should get a strong game from PSG. I'd expect Roberto di Matteo to field a stronger lineup than he did in Seattle.Ashley Cole and John Terry have joined up with the squad in New York, though how much they'll play remains to be seen.
Chelsea Tactical Speculation: I presume Ash will start the match, as we currently have no other left backs, and Paulo has played this month. We'll probably also see the continuation of the Hazard-LUKAKU combination which brought so much success in the last match. All in all, this should be a fun one. Both teams are very good, and as this is preseason, have nothing at stake, so we should see an open game. Chelsea should use the 4-2-3-1 again, with Hazard in the centre again.
Potential Lineups:
PSG: 4-2-3-1 - Douchez; Bisevac, Alex, Sakho, Armand; Chantome, Bodmer; Nene, Pastore, Lavezzi; Hoarau*
Chelsea: 4-2-3-1 - Petr Cech; Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic; Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel; Marko Marin, Eden Hazard, Ramires; Romelu Lukaku.
Remember to follow along in our game thread from half an hour before kick off! It'll be super aces!
*I may have just copied their lineup against CSKA in their last match. ; )